


Rosetta Stone

by Daretodream66



Series: Rosetta Stone [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Actual wings, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Artist Steve Rogers, But again...no left arm, F/M, God Sam Wilson, M/M, Pepper is a goddess - Freeform, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-World War II Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson Has Wings, Supernatural Elements, There some fluff, Tony is still Tony, Wanda is a witch, one armed bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-07 21:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20982425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daretodream66/pseuds/Daretodream66
Summary: Steve's a sculptor and Bucky's locked inside a piece of marble.  Wanda did it, but there was a really good reason.





	Rosetta Stone

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a piece of artwork on Tumblr and it inspired this. It wasn't Steve and Bucky, but it still inspired.

“Jacobus, we have to go!” The Witch reaches for the young man in fear. “He is coming and we mustn’t let him find you!”

Jacobus looks longingly at his surroundings. He still doesn’t understand how any of this happened. His life was simple, the son of a merchant, he should have lived a free life. That is until Alexander saw him with his father and everything changed. The man became obsessed with young Jacobus, which his family was thrilled about, but after one dinner the young man knew that his life would be hell if his family sold him to the noble. Picking up the small case, containing everything he held dear, Jacobus ran with the Witch. “Where will you take me that I will be safe and my family will remain unharmed?”

As they make their way through the dark roads and into the surrounding forest, she doesn’t know how to tell him there is nowhere that will keep him safe. She’ll never forgive herself if harm comes to this man though. He is the only one that has shown her kindness since she was small. When she was starving on the steps of the temple, he brought her food then took her into his home. Lying to him now would only betray that trust. “I do not know, but if you remain in the city, he will take you by force.”

He shivers, but not from a chill in the air. It comes from the thought of what Alexander would take from him. The forest is deep and threatening, closing in on them. The Witch raises her hand, the one not holding onto Jacobus, and the red of her magic flares up, lighting their way. He begins to shake, stopping her in her tracks. “I will never be safe.”

Finally, she turns. Lowering her head, she will not meet his eyes. “No, he carries magic in him too and he will find you, but perhaps we can stave that off for a time.”

He pulls his hand from hers. “I should just go back and accept my fate.”

She stamps her foot and the leaves drift up. “I have seen your fate and it is not this.”

That gets his attention. He knows she has many powers, but she has never shared this one. “What have you seen? Give me something to live for.”

Reaching up, she brushes his long wavy hair from his face, cupping his cheek. “You have been more of a brother to me than my own brother.” Tears well in her eyes and he lays his hand over hers, still resting on his cheek. “There is a man. His hair is like the sun and his eyes are bluer than the sea. He is big, strong like a god, but kind. He will love you more than any man has ever loved before.”

There’s something she isn’t saying, but instead of asking, he follows her deeper into the night. For two days they travel until they reach the mountain of marble. She takes a shaky breath. “This is where we must part for a time.”

“What am I to do here?” They don’t take marble from this mountain anymore. The last time the mountain had begun to quake and tremble. It is believed that the gods were unhappy with the last monument to them and it was decided by the council that this marble was inferior.

She turns to him, crying now. Raising her hands, she lets her magic leak out. It surrounds him and he’s held immobile. She cries harder, her tears staining her face. “Please forgive me. It is the only way.” He wants to ask what she means. He wants to go to her and embrace her to stop her tears, but he’s unable to move. She’s frozen him in place. He can feel it crawling up his legs and then he knows nothing.

The Witch collapses to the ground, shrieking the anguish she feels for the horror she has done. The mountain quakes again, but she knows there are no gods showing displeasure. She knows it is her own magic making this happen. It will be many millennia before she sees him again. She will live many lifetimes, but she will be there when he wakes. If she is lucky, he will forgive her.

It takes many days, but she finds a home for the stone; a place where it will be kept safe until the time is right. She will have to return to this place throughout her life to ensure that he is still safe. Blending her magic into the surrounding area, she knows that no one will come here. No one will want to. The closer they get, the more ill they will become. Touching the stone one last time, she runs into the forest, leaving a trail of magic for Alexander to follow.

“Tony! You can’t be serious? A vacation is a waste of time.” Steve paces the foyer of Stark Industries Tower. He loves his friend, even when said friend is being a jerk, but this is too much.

“I’m very serious.” Tony walks around the sculpture again, admiring what Steve has done. He whistles. “This piece is the best you’ve ever done.” Tony can admit that he knows nothing about art, but what Steve can do with a hunk of stone is miraculous.

Steve blushes. “Thanks, but don’t change the subject.” Tony smirks at him. “I don’t need a vacation and I have other people that are asking for commissions.”

Wanda comes out of the lift, grinning at the two men. Over the 10 years that she’s worked with Tony Stark and, by extension, Steve Rogers, she’s become very fond of both men. They are very different, but that seems to be why their friendship works so well. Tony didn’t discover Steve, that would be his agent and friend Sam Wilson, but Tony is the one that put Steve on the map. Neither man will back down from what they know is right, which can sometimes make for loud ‘conversations.’ She hands a tablet to Tony. “The shipment is here.”

“Aw, good.” He looks up at Steve with _that_ smile. It’s the one that usually gets someone into trouble.

“Tony, what are you up to?” Steve doesn’t like that smile. He’d call Pepper, but she’s in Japan right now, so he looks to Wanda. “Wanda, please make him stop whatever it is that he’s about to do.”

She snorts a laugh. “What makes you think that I can stop him from doing anything?”

Steve hangs his head. He knows that all of his friends believe that he works too hard. Maybe he does, but sometimes he just can’t stop the passion that he’s feelings. Each time he starts a new piece, he thinks this one will be the one to quell that passion, but it never is. Someday he’ll carve the one that will settle his insides, but so far, that hasn’t happened. 

When he was younger, he sculpted with clay, but in college he discovered a whole new medium and he hasn’t been able to get enough of it. When Tony commissioned the first piece, it was a gift for Pepper. She had loved it and from that point on, Steve was the new face in the art world. At 26, Steve stands just over 6’2 and is nothing but muscle thanks to lifting and working with stone. Today he’s in jeans and a simple Henley, but his beard is getting a little long, as is his hair. Wanda smiles softly at him, takes his hand, and leads him after Tony.

He doesn’t know that today fate will smile on him and give him what he’s always wanted…needed. Wanda holds his warm, calloused hand in hers, pulling him into the lift. Gods forgive her for what she did, but it’s almost over.

Steve was not expecting this. He circles the block of marble, trying to let it speak to him. Tony and Wanda left him hours ago, in the middle of a ballroom, staring dazed at what would be his next project. But this is too much. This marble isn’t allowed out of Italy. The country has never let anyone remove the marble, especially a piece this big. He has no idea how Tony pulled it off, but he will feel indebted to the man, which Steve isn’t sure is a good thing.

He had been prepared to fight Tony on the vacation idea, until this. The deal he made came out of the need to have this block of marble, so once he finishes this piece, he has to take a vacation planned by Tony. When he saw what kind of marble it was, he was willing to wager anything. Steve circles it again. “Talk to me beautiful. Tell me what you are.” He places his hands on the marble and feels warmth coming from it. Pulling his hands back like he’s been burned. Marble is always cool, but this is different. Placing his hands back on the warm stone, he closes his eyes and listens.

Wanda watches from the shadows, near the lift, as Steve moves around the block again. She’s watched his process many times before, but this time he seems under a spell. Closing her eyes tightly, she prays to a frozen friend. “Come on Jacobus, talk to the artist.” It’s only a whisper, but she believes the soul trapped inside that stone can and will hear her. She’s waited a thousand lifetimes to help her friend. She didn’t know that it would be such a long wait, but it has to be now and it has to be Steve.

It’s been days and Steve still hasn’t picked up his tools. He agreed to stay at the Tower while he works on this and after spending just a few hours near the marble, Steve can’t imagine leaving it. Whatever is living inside this marble isn’t talking to him like most pieces. When he touches the surface, he’d swear that he feels a heartbeat. Steve is aware that it’s just a false belief, but whatever it is, this one is special. This one could be the one. 

It isn’t until he moves around it again, tripping on the drop cloth covering the floor, that he believes he hears the marble laugh at him. He knows it didn’t really, but the sound still lives in his brain now. He knows what he has to do. Stripping his shirt over his head, he goes to the tool box. Turning back to the stone, he smiles. “I know who you are now.”

For Steve, he can’t just start carving into stone because every piece of stone has something living in it, waiting to be born. This belief is what makes Steve so good at what he does. He lives with the stone long enough to let it talk to him and then, as he carves, he talks back. Tony thinks he’s a little crazy, but can never fault the outcome. Steve is a genius with stone and it isn’t just Tony and Pepper that think so. Sam accepts this idiosyncrasy because he’s Steve’s friend and guardian, Wanda accepts them because she knows what his destiny is.

Sam stands in the doorway with Wanda a few days after Steve has started carving. What they see is what they always see this early in a piece, Steve is trimming away what isn’t part of the finished product, but he does it slowly and meticulously. “Do you think he can do it?”

Wanda reaches for Sam’s hand. “He has to. It will drive him to madness if he can’t.”

Sam takes a deep breath. “We won’t let that happen. Whatever he needs, you make sure he gets it.”

Wanda nods. She doesn’t trust a great number of people. Tony she trusts as a human counterpart to her supernatural existence and a found family. Steve she trusts as the artist that will bring life back to her friend. Sam she trusts as another supernatural creature that the rest of the world can’t understand or believe in. “I will keep a close eye on him. I’ll make sure he eats and rests.” Sam nods and leaves quietly.

As Sam strides out of the Tower, he looks up into the sky. The blue is almost blinding in the afternoon sun, but he looks past that and into what was once there. Once, many, many thousands of years ago, he was considered a god. He didn’t like war, but he was good at it and it was his created fate to be at the beck and call of leaders, monarchs, conquerors, oppressors, and other gods. He disliked it immensely, but again, he was good at it. Then the shift came and gods, like him, were forgotten by mortals. He was able to walk away without looking back. Their temples are in ruins and the humans move through their lives never worrying about beings like Sam and Wanda.

They met thousands of years ago and so, when one needed to recreate themselves for a new life, the other would too. They have moved through time together out of needed companionship, but have come to be the family that the other desired. She told Sam of a friend she locked in stone and he told her of the war that came because of the young man’s disappearance. And in this, found their common ground. They were tied together through the fate of one young man.

Alexander had combed the known earth looking for the young man that was his obsession and laid waste to places that could not help. Sam had been part of that. No matter what Sam liked or didn’t like, once summoned he was bound until the war was over. The end to that one came when they faced off against a village that had Wanda on their side. She had run as far as she could and decided that it was time to face the coming bloodshed.

_“What did you do with him, witch?” Alexander sat astride his horse, glowering at the woman that had taken Jacobus. This he had learned from a highwayman that had taken her captive for a time. The poor thief didn’t know what he had until it was too late and the witch had destroyed his mind._

_“Nothing that you will ever know or understand. He wanted nothing to do with you.” Her eyes glow red and the red mist surrounds her._

_“Once I had broken him, he wouldn’t have cared what his life before had been. He would have groveled at my feet for a mere bit of my attention.” He sees how she blanches at the thought. “Come to me Witch and you will adore me too.”_

_He’s trying to use his magic against her, but he has no idea what she’s actually capable of. “Save your tricks for someone that isn’t immune.” The red mist overtakes him and his army converges, but she holds them back. Sam is left reeling from the power she holds. Alexander falls from his horse and the Witch stands over him. “Release your hold on the god.” Alexander sneers up at her, so she does the only thing she can. She delves into his mind and finds his worst fear. Releasing it where he keeps it carefully locked in a far corner. _

_His scream can be heard and then there is quiet. She leaves him there, locked inside his own mind with the thing that some would call a father, but for Alexander he was a waking nightmare. The god, with wings on his back, appears to her. “You have broken his hold on me. How can I repay you?”_

_She looks at the army that no longer has a leader. “Send these men home to their families and then join me on a journey that will take thousands of years to complete. It is time you traveled your own path and not someone else’s.”_

It is all a great relief for Sam because he found family in Wanda and in Steve. The man is a gift to anyone that calls him friend. Steve isn’t like others, he never has been. Wanda and Sam watched him grow into who he is now. They watched him when his mother put a pencil in his hand the first time. They watched as he started adding color and character to his drawings. They watched when she introduced him to clay and he found things living inside. Then, they watched that fateful day that he picked up the tools to work in stone. Sam watched him come to life along with what he carved.

Wanda was already working for Stark and as he walked in the door that night, she knew that something had happened. “It’s him, Wanda. It is Steve.” Sam had let Steve carve in peace, but on this day he had stayed to watch as the young man began talking to the stone and oddly the stone seemed to talk back. He watched Steve have an animated conversation with a rock and knew, without doubt, that Steve was the one they had been waiting for. Sam had never met Jacobus, but after centuries upon centuries, listening to Wanda speak of him as warmly as the first time, he felt he knew the young man. A man that had run for his life and toward a destiny he couldn’t comprehend. Now, he hopes that Steve can release a young man that is fated to be the other half of Steve’s soul.

Wanda goes into Pepper’s office, sitting comfortably in her chair and focuses all of her energy on connecting. Within seconds, Pepper stands in front of her desk, smiling at her young friend. “How is everything going?”

Wanda gets up, hugging Pepper and for all intents and purposes, mother. “I think it is going well. Steve and Jacobus have connected and he carves like a man possessed.”

“Let’s just make sure that he doesn’t lose himself in the work. You know how delicate all of this is.” Wanda nods and sighs. “What bothers you so much?”

“I worry for him. He is only human after all and this could be too much.” They sit on the sofa by the window.

Pepper looks out at the city that she’s come to love through a man that she’s come to love more. Waving her hand, a book appears on the table next to them. Wanda has seen it many times, but never touched. “Go on, open it.” Wanda opens the cover and it flips on its own accord to the correct section. She sees illustrations of a blond man, mallet in hand, carving into a stone. As the pages leaf through, she sees the story unfold. “You see, there will be a trial of trust and acceptance, but in the end, these two were meant to be. We should all be so lucky to have our destiny so focused.”

“Yes, but he is human and sometimes their minds don’t work the way we want them to.” The pages rustle and Sam stands near the table.

He smiles and bows his head at Pepper. “Yes, but we have to trust him to do this. He’s the only one that can. He’s the other half.”

Pepper brushes Wanda’s hair away from her face. “You and Sam are so very old, but you will never know the things that I know. When he came to my temple and asked for a family, I brought him you. I knew he was special in a way that no one else could see. I knew that he would be tortured and you would have to lock him away. But I also knew that someday he would be paid back in full for the trust that he put in me and you.”

Sam kneels down, taking Wanda’s hands. “I know how hard this is for you. You suffered so much protecting him and then together we protected Steve, so that he could be here now.” He looks up at Pepper. “Trust Pepper on this. Steve can do this and if something happens and he needs it explained, we’ll be there for that.”

Pepper stands. “Now, I have to get back to Japan. They have a negotiator that is more than she appears. I have my suspicions about her, but I want to see how it plays out.” She straightens her blouse and goes to the wet bar. Pulling down a bottle of the best vodka, she turns grinning. “She’s Russian, so maybe I can get on her good side. And just maybe I can figure out what she is in the process.”

She’s gone as quickly as she came. “Sam?”

“Yeah?” They stand next to the window, but don’t really see what’s moving around them. 

“Protect him no matter what. I didn’t do this for Jacobus to lose him.”

Steve sits, looking up at the stone. He hasn’t done much in the last two weeks except work it down from the block with sharp corners into something softer, but he knows he’s doing the right thing. Wanda sent food up earlier and Steve hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he could smell the food. He looks up smiling after taking a bite.

“I wonder if you will like Chinese food.” He chuckles, but keeps talking. “We’ve spent almost every minute together since I started and I haven’t heard you laugh since that first day.” He looks around to see if anyone is in the room. Sometimes Tony or Wanda come in and he doesn’t even know. “People think I’m crazy for talking to stone, but they don’t know what I know. Whatever I release has a spark and deserves to be treated fairly.”

He finishes the food and gets back up to work. He climbs the ladder, looking at where the face will be. “I wonder what you look like. Sometimes what I think it will be and what it turns out to be aren’t the same.” He carefully starts. “By the time we’re done, you will know everything about me and I’ll know nothing about you. Hardly seems fair.”

It’s nearly a week later when Steve drops the tools. They clatter to the floor and he reaches up and wipes away stray pieces of marble. The face is done and he stares back at Steve. “I didn’t know.” He whispers it for only the stone to hear. Reaching up he caresses the face looking back at him. There’s such sadness in the eyes he’s carved. “Why are you sad? What did I do wrong to make you so sad?” Steve wraps his arms around the stone and cries. “I’m sorry. I thought you would be happy.”

He climbs down the latter and curls up on the drop cloth. He doesn’t mind the marble littered around, he just knows he’s made a mistake in the carving. It’s devastating and he cries himself to sleep. This is where Wanda finds him; tears staining his face, pulled into a fetal position, and emotionally shattered. 

Looking up she expects to see the marble ruined because it often happens with a wrong stroke of the tools, but instead she sees the face of her friend. “Oh…Jacobus.” In her mind she hears him laugh. She smiles up at him, cradling Steve in her lap. “What has happened? Why is he upset?”

The voice in her head is a real as her own. _“He believes he has done something to make me sad.”_

Wanda smiles down at the friend. “He feels very deeply. More so than others.”

_“He talks to me.”_

“He believes that all stone has a spark that should be respected. I suppose you will learn more about him than any of us ever knew.”

_“I like him. He tells me about things that make no sense, but I like hearing him talk.”_

“Be patient my friend.” She looks down into the sleeping face of her friend. “I am so sorry that I had to do this. It was the only way to save you.”

_“Is Alexander gone?”_

“For many, many centuries.”

_“Then it was worth the wait. Is he the one you saw for my destiny?”_

“He is.” Jacobus doesn’t speak again and Wanda knows he’s weighing all of this.

Steve wakes to Wanda singing softly to him in a language he doesn’t know. She smiles down at him and when he tries to pull away she stops him. “You mustn’t feel that you’ve done anything wrong to the stone. You carved what is there and added nothing of your own fault.”

“How do you…” Steve looks up into the sad eyes. “In my head he’s happy.”

“And I believe he is too, but you have caught him in one single moment, not all of his moments. Keep working.” She gets up to leave, but give a last look at her friends.

Steve climbs the ladder again, tools in hand. “I’m not going to give up on you. I don’t know what makes you sad, but I’m going to fix that.” He realizes that it makes it sound like he’s going to change the face, so Steve stumbles out an explanation. “I mean, I’m going to be your friend and even if your eyes are sad, your soul won’t be.”

Steve works until he’s exhausted, but he refuses to leave the stone alone. He goes to his floor and drags blankets and pillows back with him. He has JARVIS dim the lights and eats the pizza he orders. Looking up, he pauses. “When I was a kid, I was sick a lot and had to stay inside. My ma gave me my first paints and I never looked back. Sometimes I feel like she’s still with me, leaning over my shoulder telling me that what I’m doing is good enough for a museum.” Steve laughs brightly and goes back to eating. As he drifts off to sleep later, he could swear that he hears a soft voice telling him to sleep well.

Another week passes and Steve has told the statue about school and college. He’s talked about Sam and Wanda. “The one that I’m carving you for is Tony. I don’t know how you’ll feel about him. He’s a lot to take. I mean he’s not a bad guy, he’s just…hell I don’t even know. He’s just Tony.” That soft chuckle from the first day is back. Looking up into those sad eyes, Steve grins. “There you are. I thought I’d lost you.” He goes back to the hair that isn’t anything like Steve thought it would be. “I really thought you’d have short hair. I guess no matter what I have envisioned in my head, I need to throw it out because you’ve not met any of my expectations.” 

“And what expectations did you have before carving?” Steve looks up to find Sam strolling towards him.

“Sam! When did you get here?” Steve comes off the ladder, hugging his friend.

“Not long ago. I brought food. Wanda says you’ve been sleeping in here.” Steve looks back at the stone. “Steve? What’s going on?”

Steve looks closely at his friend. “I…it’s just…Sam…”

Sam shifts the bags of food, taking Steve’s elbow and leading him back to the stone. “Okay, just sit and eat. We’ll figure this out.”

He’s never seen Steve like this before. He’s obsessive with his work, but not like this. Not to the point that he doesn’t seem to know where he is or when he is. Steve sits where he has a clear view of the face. Sam watches him watch the stone. Spreading the food out, Sam takes in what’s been cleared of the rock and he sees the sadness in the eyes. Steve starts eating, but never stops looking up at the face. “I thought I did something wrong because he’s so sad, but then I heard him laugh.” He’s talking like it’s more to himself than to Sam.

Sam sucks in a breath at the admission. “Steve, maybe you should sleep.” Even Sam knows that he shouldn’t be able to hear Jacobus.

Steve jerks his head to his friend. “Sam, I do sleep. I know it sounds crazy, but…”

Sam shakes his head. “I didn’t say I thought it was crazy. I just think you seem tired. How long have you been working since you last slept?”

He looks back at the face. “Uh…I’m not sure. Do you think he looks like a James? I think he looks like a James.”

Sam tries to keep the smirk off his face, but he fails. “Yeah Steve, I think he looks like a James.” Humans, especially ones like Steve, who are ruled by their creative passion, still surprise him. But he can’t explain to Steve that the statues name is Jacobus and it’s the origin of James. “Eat your food and then maybe sleep some. James isn’t going anywhere.”

Steve wakes the next morning feeling better, but still looks up to make sure his new friend is still there. James looks out at the world, still sad, but Steve doesn’t feel sadness from him. He looks around for a sign that Sam was really here, but there isn’t one. He hopes that if that conversation really did happen, that Sam doesn’t think he’s losing it. He knows what he feels from the stone. “I’m going to shower and change. I’ll be back with you as soon as I can.”

Coming out of the lift, Steve freezes when he sees Tony waiting. “Well, there’s the great sculpting master.” He gets a good look at Steve when he stands from the sofa. “Have you been sleeping in the ballroom?”

Steve blushes and heads to his bedroom. “I’m going to shower. If I’m going to take abuse from you this morning, I need coffee, so make yourself useful and go make me some.”

Tony smirks, but heads into the kitchen. Steve joins him when he’s cleaned up and Tony has gone so far as to fix breakfast. “How is it going down there?”

Steve bobs his head, sitting at the island. “It’s going well. I’m moving from the head to the neck and shoulders today.”

“This is taking longer than I thought, but don’t think I’m letting you out of our agreement.” He sits a plate in front of the artist.

Steve rolls his eyes. “Yes Tony, I know. Once I’m done I have to go on a vacation.” He takes a bite and points his fork at Tony. “And you have no idea how long something like this takes.”

He feels normal, grounded, until he’s back in front of James. “I think I need to start keeping my mouth shut around Wanda and Sam. They’re going to commit me to an insane asylum if I keep telling them I can hear you laugh.” Up on the ladder, he smiles softly. “You don’t mind me calling you James, do you? It just seems to fit right now.”

Morning drifts into afternoon and then into evening. Steve’s worked quietly for hours. “What’s wrong with your left arm?” He looks up into those eyes. Reaching out, he brushes dust from the neck and mouth of the statue. “I wish you could talk to me. I need to know why I feel like your left arm is…”

He hears the lift ping its arrival. Wanda comes in carrying food. “I cooked for you tonight, so you must come down and eat.” Steve smiles and climbs down. Wanda looks up at her friend frozen in time. “You are unsure about something.”

Steve sits and Wanda hands him the plate. She goes up the ladder and looks squarely in the eyes of her friend. “Something isn’t right on the left side. I can’t figure out what it is, but I think there’s something wrong with his left arm.”

Wanda whirls around, she’s never told anyone about that, not even Sam. It’s one of the reasons that her friend’s family was willing to sell him to Alexander. Without the use of his left arm, he was a liability to them. “What do you think is wrong?”

Steve shakes his head and takes another bite. “I don’t know, just…it’s like it doesn’t want to be there.”

She examines the work up close and Steve has done an amazing job carving the reality of Jacobus. The face, the neck and the left shoulder. She’s stunned by how accurate his skill is. “What do you want to do about it?”

“I want to give James something useful, something he can use and feels good about.” He doesn’t realize that he’s said the name out loud. Looking up, she’s smiling down at him. “What?”

“You call him James?” Thousands of years and not only does this beautiful human have the gift to bring Jacobus out of the stone, but he’s given him a proper name that matches who he is.

“It fits him.” He doesn’t look up, but she can see the blush.

“It does indeed.” She turns back to the stone, placing her hand against its cheek. “I think when you carve the left arm you should do what feels right for the both of you.”

Steve smiles brightly up at her. He watches as she stares into the eyes, almost like there’s a conversation going on.

_“He is a good man. A man of honor.” _She smiles. _“Trust him to take care of you.”_

_“I do trust him. He has the eyes of a man worthy of so much.”_

She strokes his cheek. _“He is a man worthy of you.”_

Steve doesn’t sleep that night. He turns on music and sings as he works. His voice is melodious and fills the near empty space. The music is upbeat, from an era gone now, but still popular. “I guess you’d say, what can make me feels this way…my guy…talkin ‘bout my guy…”

The chuckles that float into Steve’s mind make him sing louder and more obnoxiously. “I’m glad you’re enjoying my bastardizing of this song.” The chuckle in his head turns into a voice and it nearly knocks Steve from the ladder.

_“I think your version is good.”_

Steve stands in stunned silence. “Tell me I’m not going crazy. Did you just talk to me?”

_“You can hear me?”_

Steve just stares, dropping his tools to the floor below. “This is nuts.” He jumps from the ladder, landing on the floor in a squat, curling into himself. Arms thrown over his head, he starts to freak out. “Tony’s right. I need a vacation. I need to get away if I’m starting to hear my work talk back.”

_“Please don’t leave me Steven. Please finish this. If you don’t, I’ll be locked in here forever.”_

Steve spins around, landing on his ass, staring up at the face of a man that he’s come to care about. “I won’t leave, but you have to explain what’s happening to me.”

_“I don’t think I can without putting other’s at risk. What I can say is that I haven’t seen the sun in so long and you gave me eyes to see again.”_

“What is your name?” Steve slowly climbs the ladder again, so he can see those eyes.

_“I like that you call me James. You can call me that.”_ Steve looks closely. _“There you are. Don’t go so far. I like looking at you.”_

“Let me get my tools.” He climbs down then is back up within seconds. “Tell me whatever you can. Where did you come from and how did you end up in this rock?”

_“From what I understand, your world doesn’t believe in magic anymore, but I’m in here because of magic.”_

Steve starts carving again. “Man, who did you piss off that locked you away like this?”

_“It was for safety. I was being pursued by someone very bad.”_

“I’m sorry. I’ll do my best to do this right.” The voice goes silent and Steve decides to fill the emptiness with chatter. “Tony came to see me this morning. I don’t know if you know who that is, but he commissioned this sculpture. I made a deal with him that when I was done, I would go on a vacation. He’s been bugging me for years to stop working so hard and take some time away.” Steve pauses in his work. He looks at the stone on the right side and starts there. He’ll come back to the left side later. “Pepper, that’s Tony’s fiancé, is this incredible woman. She’s like everything elegant and smart in this world. She and Wanda remind me of each other. I don’t know if you saw Sam last night, but he’s my agent. He’s also a friend. He just showed up at a college art show one day and signed me.”

Steve talks all night and into the next morning with no response from James. _“Steven, you need to rest. You’ve been working for too long. Rest now.”_

As the weeks pass, Steve works diligently to bring James out of the marble. He works on everything, but the left side of the body. The toga is a giveaway to Steve that James isn’t from around here. But he can’t get the stone to talk to him about it. He knows that Wanda came up a few nights ago. He woke briefly as she sat next to the statue, but sleep claimed him quickly. Instead of having conversations, Steve talks and James listens. He knows he’s listening because sometimes he can’t help himself and laughs at something Steve says.

“We have to talk about your left side.” Steve’s getting to a point that he is going to have to start carving that out and doesn’t know what to do. “I know, for whatever reason, you’ve decided not to share anything else with me, but I don’t want to do something you’ll be mad about.” Still nothing. “Okay, so I did some sketches of what I’d like to carve on that side, but if you aren’t going to talk to me, I’m going to take that as a go ahead to give you a goat hoof on this left arm.”

_“Have you lost your mind!”_

Steve snorts a laugh. “I knew you couldn’t stay quiet if I said that.” He steps back up the ladder, staring into those eyes. “What color are your eyes?”

_“Blue almost grey. Why?”_

The artist reaches out, cupping the warm cheek. “I just…I don’t know…needed to know.”

_“Steve?”_

He clears his throat and gets off the ladder. “I have an idea for the left arm, but I want you to be okay with what I want to do.” He picks up his sketch book and climbs back up. Holding the picture up, he shows the metal arm. “It’s like metal plates that overlap with inlays of gold.”

_“Why does it matter so much to you?”_

Steve climbs down and walks across the room. He knows that James can see him. “I want you to feel complete and not like there’s something wrong.”

_“But Why? I’m just a hunk of rock to you.”_

Steve whirls around, glaring at the so called rock. “You’re a hell of a lot more than that to me, James!” Steve paces the floor, trying to make James understand. “Don’t you get it, you were never just a hunk of rock to me. You’ve always been more than that. I can’t explain it, but I’ve been working on you for weeks and weeks. And I’m going to be working on you for more and more. You’re important to me and knowing that I’m giving you something back that you haven’t had for a long time, it matters too.”

_“I only ask that you stay true to the art.”_

He doesn’t see Tony standing with Wanda by the lift. He doesn’t know that everything he just said has been overheard. And he doesn’t know that only one of them thinks that he’s crazy. “Uh…Steve?”

Wanda takes him to his floor and puts him to bed. She does it, not because his behavior seems strange to her, but because Tony is about to call in a doctor to medicate Steve. As he stretches out in his bed, all he can think about is James. He tries to get back up, but she pushes him down. “You must stay here and convince your friend that you are just too tired. I will go back down and talk with James.”

“You hear him too?” Steve lifts up on his elbows, hoping that he’s not alone in this insanity.

“I do and so you must know that you are not crazy. You are just special.” She leaves him to sleep. Wanda doesn’t know what to do with this new information. Steve shouldn’t be able to hear Jacobus, but he can. Their connection is fated, of course, but still, the stone shouldn’t be speaking to him. She leaves the artist and returns to the ballroom.

_“Why is this upsetting you so?”_

Wanda paces around the stone. “He should not be able to hear you. Do you not understand how incredibly rare this kind of gift is?”

_“I have spent most of my life locked in a rock, Witch. Of course I don’t understand.”_

She laughs. “You make a good point, James.”

_“Tell me about him. I know what he says to me, but who is he really.”_

She sits far enough away that he can see her face from his angle and spins the tale of Steven Grant Rogers. From being a small, sick boy with a mother’s undying love to the artist that is lauded as the greatest of his time. She tells him how none of that means anything to the man if he isn’t true to himself and the art. She tells him of Steve’s kindness and generosity in the face of criticism and how he loves with everything he has. 

_“He’s the one you told me about. My fate.”_

“He is, but I have learned through the many, many years I’ve been alive that fate can be whatever we want.” She doesn’t want to assume that when the sculpture is done that things will work out the way she saw them so very many years ago, but the idea that these two men are going to need each other in a way that no one would understand makes her smile.

_“And if I want him?”_

“He would be lucky to have you.”

Steve dreams of those eyes that are so sad, but they change in the dream and the man smiles down at him. He dreams of waking in the morning to a beautiful man with dark brown hair and blue/grey eyes smiling down at him, leaning in to kiss him slow and languidly. He dreams of watching this man discover a world that makes no sense to him, but he’s enthralled all the same. He dreams of this man taking his hand and promising all of the tomorrows to come. He wakes in the early morning hours, smiling and hopeful. Then it all crashes down because although there is some kind of magic happening, James is only stone.

Steve returns to the ballroom the following night, after sitting with Sam and talking about the voice he hears. Sam doesn’t call him crazy or even too overworked, just listens to him talk. He stands in front of James, looking at what’s done and what still needs to be finished. Steve knows that Tony is right and he needs to get away after this is done. Steve works for several hours, never speaking. He thinks that maybe he imagined all of it, until…

_“You are angry.”_

The suddenness of the voice makes Steve jump and almost fall from the ladder. He slams his eyes shut, holding them closed. “It isn’t real. It’s just my imagination.”

There’s a chuckle and the sound digs in deep and makes a home in Steve’s bones. _“You are so sure about that, Steven?”_

He leans into the stone, resting his forehead on James’ chest. “I’m not sure about anything anymore. Why are you doing this to me?” He looks up, taking a step up on the ladder so he can see those eyes. Leaning forward, he places a light kiss on the lips of stone. “I dream about you.” It’s a move that Steve’s never done before. He’s carve many lifelike statues, but only James affects him this way. Resting his forehead against that of the statue, he sighs.

_“What did you dream?”_

Steve takes a deep breath, trying to find a place of calm. “It doesn’t matter because it can’t be real. It can’t ever be real.” For the first time, Steve climbs down, placing the tools at the base of the stone and walks out of the ballroom and into the lift. 

He made a promise to Tony and he’ll finish this commission and then he’ll do what Tony wants and he’ll go away. Steve doesn’t understand how his mind could have fractured to this degree, but he’s created a fantasy in James. A fantasy that can’t ever be realized. He walks through the streets of New York until he can’t walk anymore. The sun has gone and the darkness gives him a sense of peace that he hasn’t had. Maybe he’s just fallen into that same place that all artists go to. Maybe he’s gone crazy and instead of destroying his work he’s just destroying himself.

When he returns to the ballroom it’s still dark. The lights are off and he doesn’t feel like turning them on. There’s just enough light coming from the lamp by the lift for Steve to see James. He pauses, expecting him to turn his head and smile at Steve. In truth, there isn’t much left to do besides the lower legs and the left side.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he leaves a voicemail for Tony. “Hey Tony, I’m going to be finished with this piece day after tomorrow. I need you to get me away from here for however long you think is good. I don’t care where you send me, just make sure everything is ready to go day after tomorrow.”

He pulls his shirt off and grabs the tools. The following day Wanda comes and watches. He doesn’t stop, not even to eat. Steve works like a man on a mission, with a focus that is intense to the degree of blocking everything else out. She lets her magic out just enough to make contact with James. _“What has happened?”_

_“I don’t know. He came back last night and hasn’t spoken to me. Something is very wrong.”_

She calls Sam and when he arrives, Steve is finishing the feet and climbing the ladder to work on the left side. “What’s going on?”

Wanda leans into Sam’s side and he draws her close with an arm around her. “I don’t know. Jacobus tells me that he came back and started working. He hasn’t spoken or lost focus.” She looks up. “Sam, I think…”

Sam turns her to face him, cupping her face where tears are gathering. “You had to know this was possible. You had to know that this might be too much for him to understand. You can’t blame him for being human and not understanding what’s happening. And dealing with it by closing himself off. When the piece is finished, he’ll open back up.”

She nods then throws herself into Sam’s chest. “Yes, I understand, but he was so happy. Now he is just…”

They look over where Steve closes his eyes, stares up at the face of the sculpture, cups the cheek leaning in to rest his forehead against the left temple, and brings the mallet down. A large piece of stone breaks away to the floor and Wanda screams. She tries to run to Jacobus, but Sam holds her back. Steve turns to her, a grim look and a resignation clear in his eyes. “I had to be true to the piece.”

Red floods out of her, wrapping around Steve, who looks terrified, and lifting him into the air. Sam tries to calm her, but she’s much stronger than she was back when they met. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”

Steve hangs suspended in air looking panic-stricken and confused. Sam comes forward, standing between the artist and witch. “Wanda…you have to get control.” He holds his hands up, trying to placate his friend. “The piece was his to carve.” In his emotional state, Sam’s wings unfurl, blocking the magic from destroying the artist. In all the years they have known each other, he’s never had to do this. He’s never had to counter her magic with his own. His eyes glow white and magic that he hasn’t used in so many years leaks out creating a barrier between the witch and her target. 

Her eyes glow red and her face reflects a power that Sam hasn’t seen in too many years to count. “He had the chance to give Jacobus something he had never had and he chose not to. That isn’t being an artist, that’s being…”

Steve still doesn’t understand how any of this is possible and believes that he is now truly fractured in his mind when that voice comes through.

_“Witch, you are angry over a could have when this is what is.”_

She begins to cry in earnest and releases Steve, who falls to the floor. She looks up at the face of her friend, her family, her brother. “But he could have given you more.”

_“But I did not ask for more. I only wanted what was.”_

While her focus is on the statue, Steve runs for the lift. He looks back at a woman that he doesn’t know and a man that he can’t comprehend. Sam watches the emotions play across his face and nods. Tears flood the artist and as he starts back into the room Sam shakes his head mouthing ‘go.’ Sobbing for everything he’s lost, Steve boards the lift and disappears. On the plane to god knows where, he sobs uncontrollably. Never in his life has he become so obsessed with a piece, but James was different. James was everything. He looks down at the dust still settled on his hands and under his nails and doesn’t think he can ever pick up a mallet again.

By the time Wanda is calmed, he’s gone. She sits at the foot of the statue with Steve’s sketch book, thumbing through page after page of Jacobus. Early stage sketches to what Steve thought the finished product would be. In each one, there is a left arm. Looking up she begins to cry again. Sam kneels next to her trying to keep her as calm as possible. “He did what he thought was right.”

She looks up with red, swollen eyes. “He did what was easy.”

_“He did what I wanted him to do.”_

Their eyes shoot up to the unmoving statue. “You do not mean that.”

_“You know me witch. I never believed my life would be much. I was born deformed and was never what anyone wanted. I am what I am and if this is how Steven needed me to be, then this is how I will be.”_

Sam stands, looking at the face of a man he never knew, but one that he needs to know now. “Come Witch, it’s time to release him.”

Tony doesn’t know why Steve is in such a hurry to leave the building and start his vacation, but he’s more than willing to whisk him away to the nearest helipad. He does know that something happened that Steve won’t talk about, so when he returns to his Tower, he goes to the ballroom. When he steps off the lift, he’s pretty sure that whatever affected Steve is now affecting him. Sam Wilson, agent and friend of Steve Rogers has…wings and Wanda Maximoff, personal assistant and all around badass, is glowing red. On top of that, whatever the red stuff around her is, it’s surrounding the statue. There’s a burst of red and then where the statue was, stands a man in a toga. “What the ever-loving-fuck is happening!?”

Everyone jumps in surprise and it’s the one armed man on the stone pedestal that speaks first. “You must be Tony. I am Jacobus, but Steve calls me James.” He jumps from the stone block. “Can you tell me where he’s gone? I need to find him.”

Tony is, in a word, gobsmacked. “I…uh…wha…I…” Then he falls, sitting sprawled on the floor and just keeps staring at the three other…he doesn’t even know what they are.

Steve didn’t ask where he was being taken, but now that he’s here, in the South of France, he is glad that Tony thought to send him somewhere remote. The villa belongs to Tony and Pepper, but isn’t the large, opulent residence that Steve expected. It’s warm and quiet, which is exactly what Steve needs. Whatever it is that happened with that stone, Steve needs to get passed the desperate need to be near it. His second night, he walks into the village and buys just what he will need for dinner and breakfast. Greeting the merchants and talking about the fruits and meats helps ground him in the here and now.

James, over the last couple of months, has become Steve’s world and being near the stone had become a desire that he couldn’t place. James had become Galatea to Steve’s Pygmalion and no one needed to be witness to something that tragic. The voice in Steve’s head that he attributed to James, was just that, a voice in Steve’s head. It was nothing more.

When he returns to the villa, he sees the light blinking on the phone in the entry hall. There are five missed calls, but Steve doesn’t want to deal with Tony making sure he’s settled in or questioning him on what he’s doing to relax. So, moving away from the phone and heading into the kitchen, he decides to just be for a few days. Tony will understand.

The fourth day of Steve’s stay, he finds a sketch pad and charcoal. Finding a good spot on the patio, he sits to draw the surrounding trees and landscape. The day before, the phone had rang and rang. Steve finally turned the ringer off. The answering machine now has 27 missed calls. His cell phone is in a drawer upstairs and Steve hasn’t looked at it since he put it away. If he’s going to come back from whatever this insanity is, he needs the quiet.

He’s been drawing for hours it feels like and when he really looks at the paper, he sucks in a surprised breath. It isn’t the surrounding landscape. What peers up at him are the eyes that he knows from his dreams. This time smiling at him, like they so often do when Steve closes his eyes. Throwing the pad away, he gets up to make the walk into town again. Halfway there, he stops to look at the sheep, grazing lazily in a field.

His knees buckle and he crashes to the ground, crying out for something, anything to make this stop. Running back to the house, he throws everything he has into a bag and exits the house at a run. He doesn’t stop until he makes it to the bus station. Purchasing a ticket, he boards the bus and hopes that wherever it takes him, he can find the peace that he’s looking for.

Back at the villa, the phone rings again. No one is there to answer it. Upstairs, sitting in a drawer, his cell pings with a text.

‘Steve, I really need you to answer. I understand now why you left the way you did, but this is important.’

‘DAMNIT ROGERS ANSWER ME.’

Tony looks at the three like they are all crazy. All he wanted to do is come and take a look at whatever Steve had created and see what he thought he could sell it for or maybe it could be displayed in the foyer of the building like Steve’s other. Now he’s sitting with three people, and he’s using that term loosely, that are telling him a crazy story about magic and freeing souls from rocks and wars thousands of years ago. Tony finally stands, holding his hands up. “Stop! Just stop. None of this is real. I’m either asleep in my lab passed out and dreaming or I’m drunk somewhere and hallucinating.”

The lift doors open, admitting Pepper who is carrying a book that looks to be ancient. Wanda smiles, Sam goes to hug her, Tony looks relieved, and James drops to his knees, head bowed in deference. Pepper goes to him, kneeling in front of him and pulling his chin up, so they make eye contact. “No one does this anymore Jacobus. I thank you for your respect, but it isn’t needed.”

He smiles at the gentleness in her eyes. “But you are the greatest of them all. You took pity on a boy without an arm when he asked for a family that cared. You brought the witch to me.”

Pepper stands, pulling the man with her, smiling delightedly. “That I did, but perhaps everyone could stop calling her witch and start calling her by name.” She holds out her hand and Wanda takes it. “She has been with me for many, many years and I gave her a name. Please call her Wanda.”

James bows his head again. “Of course.”

Pepper turns back to Tony, who is now standing with his mouth open. “Now, it would seem that too many things have transpired since I was away. Who would like to explain everything that I missed?”

Sam starts talking and Tony is still standing with his mouth hanging open. Pepper goes to him, hand on his chin, and closes it for him. By the time that Sam is done, Tony still looks shell-shocked and Pepper laughs. “So you see, Ma’am, we have a situation.”

That’s as much as Tony can handle. “I need everyone to stop for just a goddamn minute!” Everyone freezes, turning to look at the genius. “Is there anyone in this room, besides me, that is human?”

James raises his hand. “It would appear that you and I are at a disadvantage.”

Tony starts pacing and rambling because it’s how he processes. “Let me see if I have everything straight.” He turns, looking at Wanda and James. “You two were friends…” They start to speak. “Okay, fiiiinnnne, family, whatever.” He waves his hand dismissively. “There was an evil bastard named Alexander that wanted you for,” James blushes and turns away. “Things we won’t talk about. To save him, you,” He looks over at Wanda, who is nodding. “Saved him by locking him in the stone and you,” He looks to Sam, who is grinning. “Led the army against her, but she kicked Alex’s ass and freed you. You’re a god of some kind, but we don’t call it that anymore because it’s just not done, whatever the hell that means.” He looks back at Wanda, scrutinizing his next words. “You somehow got that piece of marble out of Italy so that Steve could carve Jacobus here out so that you could re…re…reanimate him.” Wanda looks giddy, hugging James. Tony turns on Pepper. “Somehow you know all of this because you are what exactly, besides making me think that you love me and want to be my wife.” He storms to the windows feeling used and not unlike his father used to make him feel.

Everyone freezes because they didn’t see this coming. James is the first to move. “I do not understand why you do not trust the love of one so great.” Tony turns on him and it makes sense to the younger man when he sees the pain. “Oh, it is about the…”

The cocky attitude that Tony let go many years ago, about the time he fell in love with his then PA, comes back. “Yeah Stone Age, it’s about the lying. I don’t do well with lying and those that do it have something big to hide.” He looks over James’s head at Pepper. “And apparently, this one is a doozy.”

Pepper comes to him. She doesn’t try to touch, but does get close enough to lock eyes with him. “And what would you have done, Tony. If I had shown you who I really was back then, when being the biggest and the best was all you could see. What would you have done to me?”

He lowers his head. “Yeah, I get that, but even after I asked you to marry me, you could have told me.”

“And how would I have done that. I live this life and love this life. How exactly would you have me explain that part of me?” She’s getting angry and James backs away, hiding behind Wanda.

“Explain that part! Jesus Pepper or whatever your real name is, I don’t know what you could have said, but something is better than nothing.” He storms away. “I mean who are you really? What is your real name!?”

Sam’s wings come out again and arch high into the air, putting a protective barrier between Wanda, James and the chaos that’s unfolding. This isn’t how any of this is supposed to be. Their focus should be Steve, but they have derailed somewhere along the way. But now that it’s going, Sam can’t stop it. Pepper turns on Tony, glaring. “Athena, damn you! I was known as Athena!”

Tony is stunned, then snorts causing everyone to look at him like he’s finally cracked. “Oh sure, but aren’t you supposed to be a virgin goddess?”

Pepper bursts with laughter. “Well, I think we can both admit that ship has sailed.” She goes to him, wrapping arms around his shoulders. “This is who I am. I spent many years, too many to talk about, trying to find a life that allowed me to be me, not what everyone expected of me. I found you and this life. I am Pepper Potts, soon to be Pepper Stark. That’s all I am now.”

He drags a finger down her cheek, mumbling. “But if you wanted to smite someone, you could?”

“If you don’t watch it, I’ll smite you.” Leaning his forehead against hers, he closes his eyes. “No wonder Steve freaked the fuck out. This is insane and doesn’t at all fit with anything they taught me at MIT.”

Pepper snorts and Tony looks at her charmed. “But you’ve always been better than what others taught you.” She looks back at the group that is a little more relaxed. “Now, someone tell me what the hell happened with Steve.”

“What do you have that you can offer?” She speaks English better than Steve thought she would.

“I have money.” She laughs and Steve feels his heart sink. With everything he’s witnessed, he has to believe that this woman can help him.

“Money serves no purpose, but to corrupt. What you should offer is something that can’t be replaced; something you will miss.”

He thinks for a minute, then pulls the necklace from around his neck. “I have these.”

She looks at the battered and tarnished silver and nods. “Your parents?” He nods. “That will do.” Taking the necklace off, he hesitates for just a second, but she doesn’t miss it. “Whatever you need must be of great importance for you to part with these.”

He doesn’t say anything and she watches him closely. “There are going to be people looking for me and they have the means to find me.” Her eyes turn to slits as she looks deeply into who this young man is. What she finds is not something she has come across in many, many years.

“You are an artist.” He nods. “You need peace that you have not been able to find because you keep running from whoever is chasing you.” That’s not all she sees and if he is who he appears to be, she will only be able to hide him for a little while, but maybe long enough for him to come to terms with what haunts him. She takes the necklace, goes to a chest near the window and pulls out a drawer. “What I’m going to give you will hide you for a time, but you must understand, I cannot guarantee that it will last. Those that are looking for you are more powerful than I.”

Steve nods. “I’ll take what I can get.”

She puts a charm on the necklace, with the rings. “Put this on and do not take it off no matter what. Do you understand?”

He puts the necklace back on, but looks up confused. “But the rings were payment.”

“No son, the rings were a test. Your willingness to part with something so valuable to you, was enough to tell me how deeply you needed my help.” Steve thanks her repeatedly and leaves. After everything he’s seen, he has to trust that this woman, hidden away in the mountains of Northern Italy, the one that the people of the village call Old Witch, could help him. He can’t say he doesn’t believe in magic when it lifted him off the ground and nearly killed him. So, everything he believed is gone. Wanda isn’t who he thought, Sam isn’t even human and that means that Tony and Pepper are probably something otherworldly too.

Steve keeps moving and only stops when he finds himself in a town outside of a marble quarry. He doesn’t know what it is about the town, but something feels safe. He takes a room in a villa outside of town, with an older couple that needs help around the orchard. Steve can do that. He can just be for a little while and maybe, if he’s lucky, he can stop dreaming of those eyes.

Arriving at the villa in France brings panic to the group. They find Steve’s phone and food left behind. There is a sketch pad on the patio and when James picks it up, his face looks back at him. “Oh my Steven, where have you hidden yourself?”

He’s not speaking to anyone, but Sam bumps his shoulder. “We’ll find him. He’s a city boy, he won’t go too far from what’s familiar.”

Pepper comes out, looking at the sketch. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

It takes three days to track him into Italy. The only reason they get that far is because Tony has JARVIS hack into Steve’s bank accounts. Just inside the Italian border, the withdrawals stop. “He figured out that we could track him through the money, so the last time, he took out enough to keep moving for awhile.” Tony’s impressed with Steve’s movements.

“Why is he running from me?” Wanda sits with James on the sofa of their hotel room and holds his hands.

“He is frightened of what might be or maybe he’s frightened by what he doesn’t think is possible.” Pepper looks at Tony. “Honey, I need you to find a temple for me.”

Tony smirks. “Can you go to temple? Isn’t that like sacrilegious or something?”

She rolls her eyes. “I need to call out the big guns for this.” She looks at Wanda and Sam. “Do you remember how to do this?” They both nod. “Tony, I need you to find one of my temples.” He looks terrified of that, like he’s just realizing it’s all real. “And if you can’t find a Greek Temple to Athena, look for a Roman one to Minerva.”

“Minerva?” Tony may be in shock, but he’s still snarky as hell.

“It’s the same thing, but Roman’s were assholes that needed to rename everything.” It doesn’t take Tony long to find one.

They board the plane and head further into Italy. “Shouldn’t you know where all of your temples are?”

Pepper lays with her head in Tony’s lap as he plays with her hair. “Do you have any idea how long ago that was? I don’t keep up with things that have no meaning anymore.”

Tony snorts. “And yet, here we are, on our way to one of your ancient temples.” He covers his mouth with the hand that isn’t playing with her hair. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I’m engaged to Athena.” Pepper snorts.

James watches in fascination at how they are so open with their feelings. He wants more than anything to know what Steven’s hands feel like, but in his time that was reserved for soldiers and the wealthy. The only way he would have known that kind of feeling is if he’d submitted to Alexander. He shivers at the thought. Wanda watches, but doesn’t intercede. It’s Pepper that does. “What? What just happened?”

James waves it off. “It isn’t anything you should worry about, ma’am.” He mimics Sam’s choice of words in referring to Pepper.

“Okay, we need to have a family meeting.” Sam laughs along with Wanda and James just seems confused by the words. Tony grins at everything because this has been the weirdest two weeks of his life and he wouldn’t change anything about it. “There will be no more ma’ams or titles or references to me other than Pepper. Leave all that other stuff where it belongs. In. The. Past.” She reaches over, taking James’s hand. “We are family, brought together by fate or destiny or just really good chance. I am not a goddess and do not want to be treated like one. I want to be your friend and help you find what I found in this new world.”

James blushes and nods. “Of course…Pepper.” She pats his hand. “However, we are going to one of your temples, so it is kind of hard to forget you’re a goddess.”

The plane dissolves into giggles and laughter. “You are going to be my new favorite.” Two weeks since James was brought out of the stone and Tony can’t imagine what his life would be like if all that hadn’t happened. He’s seen a new side to all of these people and come to realize that James is the perfect complement to Steve. He can see how James would be able to pull Steve out of his head and get the artist to enjoy life. With everything being new to the younger man, Steve would need to be by his side instead of covered in dust hidden away.

James watches from the balcony of a hotel as the sun sets in flares of gold and orange. He watches the people moving about in the early evening, holding hands, taking pictures on what he now knows is called a cell phone. There are so many things that he wishes he could tell Steven, but they aren’t any closer. Pepper has determined, with Wanda’s help, that Steven has found a way to shield himself from them. He truly doesn’t want to be found and James is beginning to think that perhaps they should stop and leave him be. The only issue is that James doesn’t have a home and nowhere to go if they leave.

They’ve spent another three weeks trying to gather everything that Pepper needs to unveil Steve’s location and in that time, Tony and Sam have been introducing James to new things. Food is better, but the clothing is strange. He does like what Sam calls blue jeans. They are soft and he has many different kinds now with shirts to go with them. The biggest disappointment is the shoes, but Tony finally convinces him to try something called a loafer, which is very nice, but also insisted on getting him a pair of boots. He doesn’t really understand how money works, but everywhere that Tony goes people want to help him.

By the end of the sixth week out of the stone, James is tired and frustrated. Pepper promises him that it’s almost over. “Trust me, tonight we are going to give this city a show that it hasn’t seen in a few thousand years. If this doesn’t work, then nothing will and we’ll have to wait for him to come to us.”

Steve has found working with the elderly couple is relaxing and has also found that they make very good subjects for drawing. When one of the tractors breaks down, they ask Steve to go to the city for the part they need. With everything they have given him, he readily agrees. He takes enough money with him to stay in the city for the night because after helping with all the other chores, he gets a later start than he intended. Packing lightly, he takes their truck to make the drive.

In the six weeks since he’s been away from New York, he’s let his beard grow fuller, but kept it trimmed and neat. Elena, his landlady, keeps wanting to fix him up with every eligible young girl that she knows. Steve doesn’t have the heart to tell her that girls really aren’t his thing. His hair is a bit longer, but he’s beginning to like it. With an arm resting out the window of the truck, he lets his mind wander to what he might do next. Before his mind can take him down a path that he’s not willing to go, he decides that for now, what he’s doing is good.

By the time he arrives in the city, it’s too late to pick up the part, so he finds a small hotel in the shadow of an ancient temple. He doesn’t know who the temple was built for, but he decides to have dinner then take a walk up the path to see. 

“What exactly is going to happen?” Tony watches as tourists move towards the path to leave the temple. “Are you making them leave?”

Pepper smiles at Wanda, who is leaking red mist, but no one seems to be noticing. “I’m not doing anything. Wanda is ‘suggesting’ that the people need to go to bed.”

Sam stands at the altar with James. “What will happen?”

It’s one thing to leave an offering at a temple and ask for help, but James has never been in a temple when the god or goddess are in residence. “Well, Wanda is clearing the temple, I’ll be protecting Tony, and Pepper will use the oil we made to anoint you so that she can channel your connection with Steve.” Tony comes over to join them and to listen to Sam’s explanation.

“This connection that they have, what is that exactly?” James seems just as interested in Sam’s answer.

Sam smiles at Tony. “If you believe in that type of thing, you might call it soul mates. Their destinies have been intertwined since Jacobus was born.”

“Okay, we are ready to go.” Pepper comes over, using the oil to draw a sigil onto Bucky’s forehead. His eyes cross trying to watch what she’s doing. Wanda giggles at the face he’s making. Pepper leans in, kissing his nose, making the man blush. “Are you ready?”

“What do I have to do?” Wanda takes his hand, leading him to the altar.

“You just have to stand here.” She places him where the laurel leaves have been placed. “And let me and Pepper do the rest.”

Tony comes over, cupping Pepper’s face. “You won’t get hurt will you?”

She smiles at him. “No, I’m just going to amplify Wanda’s power and channel it in a certain way. Trust me?”

“Do you have any other secrets besides this Athena thing?” He’s grinning, but she knows that he’s asking a serious question.

“No, that’s all there is.”

“Then yes, I trust you.”

Tony moves off to the side and Sam unfurls his wings and holds them up, but lowers the left one when Tony grabs it. “Whoa man, what are you doing?” No one has ever touched Sam’s wings.

“I want to see what’s going on and your bird parts are in the way.” Sam barks a laugh and realizes in the moment why these people mean so much to him. Now, if they can just get Steve on the same page. Sam keeps the wing lowered.

James stands in front of the altar, Wanda stands a few feet behind him, and Pepper hops up on the altar, sitting with her ankles crossed. Tony snorts. “Is she allowed to do that?”

Sam turns slightly, grinning. “Her temple, her rules.” Tony laughs.

“Wanda, what are you going to do?” James sounds nervous and looks over his shoulder at his friend.

“Relax James, all I need you to do is think of Steven. I’m going to connect the two of you so that you can see where he is.” He nods and she starts glowing red.

Pepper gives a soft, small smile as the red magic leaks from Wanda to James. Raising her hand, she lets her own power guide the magic. Tony watches in fascination as a white light comes out of Pepper and enters Wanda. The red mist that surrounds the young man now dances with the white light and it’s like a string forms, coming out of James right about the place where his heart is. It travels through the temple and out into the night. Sam looks over at Tony. “Now we just have to wait until it finds Steve.”

Steve makes his way through the town and towards the temple. He knows that a night watchman will probably turn him back once he gets closer, but he wants to try anyway. What he isn’t expecting is crying out in the direction of the temple. Looking up, he sees a strange light, similar to the one that engulfed him that day in the ballroom. It weaves its way through the night as people look up unsure of what they are seeing. It pauses in the night sky then almost like it’s being pulled, it shoots towards him. It’s so unexpected that Steve freezes. He doesn’t panic until it pushes its way into him.

A few people come down from the temple, stopping to watch him. Steve looks up and knows that he has to get up there. He doesn’t know why, but he _has_ to. Running through the group that’s watching, he heads up the hill. It almost feels like the red is a string pulling him up and up further. He should be terrified, but that isn’t how it feels. There’s warmth and something familiar about the string that’s guiding him. As he reaches the plateau, where he would expect to be stopped, the guard seems more interested in getting Steve into the temple. “Hurry son. When she calls, you have to answer.” His eyes glow a strange red, but Steve thinks it may just be the play of lights.

Steve doesn’t know what the man means, but he runs full tilt into the ruins, skidding to a stop at what he sees. There’s so much light and power coming from the altar and in his peripheral he can see Sam with those wings again, but what he only has eyes for is the man standing in front. The red string seems to be coming from him. But he isn’t stone. The eyes aren’t sad. His hair is a beautiful chestnut color. And he’s smiling brighter than the red string.

“James?”

There’s a burst of energy from him and Steve feels it down in his soul.

“Steven…you came.”

Only now do Steve’s feet seem to be made of lead, but they pull him forward. He wants to reach out, needs to reach out. His fear is that when he does, all of this will disappear. But he doesn’t have to because James reaches for him first. The hand is warm and real.

Then Steve sobs, confusing the other man. “I took your left arm. Oh god, what did I…”

The arm wraps around him, bringing Steve to rest against a chest, face buried in a real, flesh neck. “Ssshhh, Steven, you did nothing. I never had a left arm, you didn’t take anything from me, you only gave me back what I was.”

“But just so you know, I can probably make you an arm. I mean, I am a genius and have more money than god.” Steve and James look over at Tony. “Oh shit, can I even say that now with my fiancé being a goddess?”

There are barks and snorts of laughter. Steve looks around at everyone that’s present. “I don’t understand what’s happening.”

James holds him close again. “There is much that you have missed.”

Steve leans away, looking into James’s eyes. “Are you real?”

James reaches up, caressing Steve’s cheek. “I’m as real as you are.” He takes Steve’s hand, placing it over his heart. “See, beating heart and everything.”

Pepper comes forward. “We need to leave here now. People are starting to return and will want answers that I, personally, don’t want to give.” She looks around, waving a hand to clear everything they had set up. “We’re going back to France and once there, everything can be talked out.” The group slips into the night, James never letting go of Steve’s hand.

“Are you telling me that this was meant to be, like what, fate?” Steve paces the patio of the villa, seeming to get further and further into his head. “You know all this sounds crazy and I thought getting away was supposed to fix that.”

Wanda snorts and Sam just grins. After such a long, long time, the two of them don’t have to hide who they are from the people they love. Pepper sits back, sunglasses on, glass of wine in her hand, and taking everything in stride. She knew that this would be hard for Steve. He left to re-center himself and now he’s got more information to process. “Steve, let me just ask you a couple of questions.” He nods and James watches him run his fingers through his hair. He’s noticed that Steve does that when he’s overwhelmed. “Do you want to be with James and do you want to be part of this family?”

Steve looks over at James and he tries not to, but every time he looks at the man, he smiles like the sun breaking through the clouds. James blushes and turns away. Steve has been kind enough to not ask anything of him, but James is getting to the point that he really would like Steve to push just a little. “I want what James wants. If that’s friendship, I’ll take it. If it’s more, I’d be lucky to have it.” Steve blushes at his own admission and looks back at Pepper. “And as for the other, you’ve always been my family, but I just don’t feel like I know any of you anymore.”

Tony comes out, refilling Pepper’s glass. “That’s simple Rogers. This is Sam Wilson, he’s your agent and on odd days he has bird parts.” Sam snorts. “That’s Wanda Maximoff, she’s an all around bad ass, runs my life, and if anyone pisses her off, she can explode them with her mind.” Wanda tries to pretend to be offended. “I’m Tony Stark and I’m a genius, billionaire that’s going to go into the prosthesis business.” He gives an exaggerated bow. “That beautiful creature is my fiancé Pepper, also known at Athena.” Pepper shakes her head in exasperation. “You’re Steve Rogers, sculptor extraordinaire.” He goes over to James, taking him by the elbow, and bringing him to stand in front of Steve. “And this is James Buchannan Barnes, newly sculpted, newly named for legal purposes by yours truly.” He goes to sit next to Pepper. “We’re a weird and wonderful group that will and have gone to the ends of the earth for each other. What more do you need to know?”

Steve looks over at Tony then back at James. “James Buchannan Barnes.” He tests it out and finds that he likes it. James smile blindingly. “Can I call you Bucky?”

James steps into Steve’s space and decides to take the bull by the horns. He leans up, kissing Steve chastely. “Only you can call me Bucky.”

Sam gives a smirk. “He’s the only one that will want to.”


End file.
